The Mansion
by Devedor
Summary: Alucard is sent on a mission regarding what looks like a satanic ritual.


A cold wind blew as he walked down the cement path; his boots thudded on the cold pavement. The sound of gunfire rang out in the dark before him, which only caused him to quicken his pace. The Iron gate loomed before him, which seemed to say, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" as if it was the gate to hell itself. He laughed to himself, vaulted the gate in one easy leap, and continued to advance. He mounted the steps, and pushed open the door. Inside was a sight that someone would not forget for a long time. The occupants of the manor were lying dead upon the floor in various states of dismemberment. What looked like a middle-aged man was fused upside down to the wall, arms spread as if on a crucifix. "I wonder what caused this," he thought to himself. He continued through the house searching for the perpetrator, checking each room. In some, he found corpses, but others seemed undisturbed. He made his way through the manor, not seeing any trace; it was as if the murderer just flew away…. He chuckled quietly as a shroud of mist formed about his body. "I can sense his trail, smell him." He could smell the gore; see the scent of the vampire who destroyed the populace of the manor. "Your mine." Suddenly the man was gone, only mist remained in his place.

"Damn it, that was a close one," a voice sounded in the dark. "Quiet, he could have followed you," a feminine voice sounded behind the first. The figure to whom the first voice belonged stepped into a moonbeam. His lank form was covered in head to foot in bandages, only his eyes remained uncovered, and what eyes they were. They seemed to absorb all of what little light was in the room. The cold steel gray of his irises gleamed as he looked at his employer. "I did what you requested mistress. I have the attention of the Hellsing family pet. Now the question is; what do I do with it?" A candle was lit, and the bandaged figure was engulfed in light. He looked around, his eyes instantly adjusting to the newly brightened room. It was furnished in an older style, furniture focused around a fireplace, which was flanked by two bookshelves. These monoliths of literature covered what remained of the wall that was untouched by the cold stone of the unlit fireplace. The strange woman was clothed all in blue, her suit a dark shade, her gloves almost white, but every article of clothing on her body was remarkably azure. Her hair a blazing red, a contrast to the cool darkness of her clothing, but was more akin to her personality. Her frame was slight, only marred by the slight bulge of a shoulder holster, containing a pistol, which she obviously was not trying to hide. Her face was as slight as her frame, as if she had not eaten in days. Her complexion was as white as the bandages that clothed her companion. "You know, it's not healthy to take such joy in senseless killing…" she responded, seeming to ignore his inquiry. "Heh, I know… Its just… so much… fun to slaughter." The room went silent for a moment, but soon a tapping could be heard, a quiet noise, which was unnoticeable in the previous conversation. "You're wounded" the woman commented. "Yeah… one of the blighters got me in the chest with a knife… nothing to serious, but it still bloody hurt." "Well, be more careful next time, it could have left a trail" "I was sure to cover my tracks" said the lanky form in front of her. "Just be more careful next time. I think you underestimate our prey… and I don't want to see my investment wasted." "Relax mistress, I won't get myself killed."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of…"

"Alucard, report in." Integra's voice sounded from the payphone. "Sir Integra, It seems to be the work of a vampire. Possibly involved in a satanic cult, but I am not quite sure. The master of the house had apparently been stripped of his flesh and fixed to the wall, as if on a crucifix. The other members of the house were stabbed through the heart, with some sort of blade, but as of now I'm unsure of what kind of blade it was." "Damn it, this sort of thing can't get public. I'll send a crew to clean up this mess." Thunder rang out in the distance. 'It sounds like rain,' Alucard thought to himself as he hung up the payphone. 'I guess I had better track down that vampire before the scent disappears altogether' With that his form slowly changed. It darkened and shrank. His pointed teeth became more prominent. The red of his trench coat and hat slowly shifted to a dark brown, which lightened to a soft gray. His clothing slowly changed into fur as he slowly changed into a wolf. In this new guise, Alucard slinked away into the darkness, following the scent of the perpetrator, as well as a different scent that was mingled in with the first. 'It smells like a woman,' he thought. 'Strange, there was only one out of place scent at the mansion.' He sped through the city, trying to avoid attention. The lights of building gradually seemed to blur as he sprinted down street after street. Eventually, the blur turned to dashes as the spaces between buildings became longer, as the city turned into a town, which turned into villages, which turned into forest. The scent began to thicken as he continued onwards. Gradually it lead to a large mansion, larger than the one he had visited previously this night, but it had fallen into disrepair with years of neglect. He stopped, and began to transform himself back into his humanoid guise. His spine and pelvis shifted so he was standing upright, and his shoulders shifted down and back to form the neck and chest of his humanoid form. He stopped mid-transformation as he heard a soft moaning. This moaning grew louder as dark shapes moved towards him in the darkness. 'Ghouls' he thought to himself. 'They must have been the employees of the mansion… that must be why the mansion has fallen into disrepair.' The shambling undead continued to advance as Alucard gradually shifted his front paws into more human like appendages. He then thickened and lengthened the claws until they were about a decimeter long. He shifted his muzzle into a more grotesque facsimile of the wolf he was, until recently, masquerading as. "Come at me then you wretches" he growled as the ghouls staggered forward in their stiff gait. Alucard charged forward with blinding speed, and took a swipe at the closest rotted form. His claws struck flesh, and at the feeling, he wrapped his fingers around the creature's neck, ripping its skull from its shoulders. 'This is child's play' he thought to himself as he rent flesh from bone. He sliced, stabbed, hacked and hued as ghoul after ghoul advanced upon him in a futile attempt to eat his undead flesh.

"There is a werewolf approaching the manor my mistress," the bandaged vampire said gleefully. "Trust Hellsing to send a dog to do their dirty work" The woman in blue responded. "You could make short work of this fool. Go kill it, and be sure to make it painful." "Yes my mistress."

Alucard was drenched in the blood of the wretched creatures, adrenalin pumping through his veins from the slaughter. "So you're the one Hellsing sent to investigate my crimes" a voice rang out behind him. Alucard turned to see a form materializing behind him in the mist. "Yes and you will pay for your sins." Alucard responded. He began his transformation again. , this time completing it. The red of the Ghoul-gore shifted into the red of his coat and hat. His fur shifted into hair that receded into his body, and back to his scalp. His claws and teeth receded, until he was in his common guise. His prominent eyeteeth glinted in the moonlight. The bandaged vampire gasped as he gazed upon the now familiar form of Alucard. "You freak! Are you a werewolf and vampire? How is this possible?" "In my many years spanning many human lifetimes, I have acquired many powers that younger vampires only dream about." "You lie, you monster! You're a freak of nature!" The bandaged vampire shouted, "You are unfit to live!" With that, he charged at Alucard, blades sliding out from underneath the bandages covering his arms. "Now you die!" Alucard reacted quickly, drawing his pistol faster than the blink of an eye. The bandaged vampire stopped short of Alucard, just a little more than an arms length away. "You see this?" Alucard asked him "This is Joshua, my favorite little toy. It fires .454 Casull explosive tip rounds made from a silver cross from a church in Manchester. I think this would do quite a bit of damage to that little skull of yours." "Shoot me, I dare you Alucard" The bandaged vampire responded. With that, Alucard pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced the bandaged vampire's skull, continued through his brain and exploded upon collision with the other side of his skull. He fell over backwards, landing on a pile of ghoul parts. 'That was too easy' Alucard thought to himself. He started up the road towards the mansion, but noticed something odd. Mist was forming around his feet, which started to flow towards his fallen opponent. Alucard heard laughter coming from behind him as he turned to look at his opponent, who had healed his mortal wound and was standing, quite well in fact. "Normally that shot would have killed you, but I see that you are a vampire of a higher caliber than I expected. There is only one thing to do when dealing with a vampire such as you." Alucard lifted his hands to the sides of his head and recited, "Releasing Restraint Control Technique System 2 Situation A. Activating limited disengagement of ability protection until target is completely silenced. Invocation of Cromwell Confirmed. Levels Three, Two and One released." Shadows formed around the combatants, as if to shield them from the view of others. "Now the real fight begins!" the bandaged vampire said as he rushed forwards, gradually changing into a form vaguely similar to that of what Alucard had been not ten minutes before. However, the similarities ended with slight human features; where Alucard had the form of a humanoid wolf, the bandaged vampire had that of a bat, a large human body with features of that elegant creature of the night. He was dark brown, his ears extended out of his bandages until they were perched atop his head. Gradually his form became more muscular. His head was an almost perfect copy of a vampire bat. 'We are the same Alucard, we have the same strengths. I can transform into a bat, a wolf, mist, and anywhere in between.' The Man-Bat lunged at Alucard, and sunk his fangs into his arm. The arm severed at the shoulder, and blackness seeped into the air around them. He ripped and clawed at Alucard, until nothing but blackness remained around him. He was breathing hard from the effort, breathing in the blackness. 'There are many ways to hill a vampire; destroy the heart, Expose them to sunlight, burn the coffin, decapitate them, burn them, or club them. The trick is to find out which technique will kill an individual. It depends on what vampire created the individual vampire. If you know this, it is easy to kill a vampire, if you do not; the trick is to try each method, until one works.' The bandaged vampire gasped internally as he heard Alucard's telepathic speech. 'I thought I destroyed you!' 'Mist my enemy; mist is my friend, as well as my form. You have been breathing me for the last few minutes, and now I can do this!' The bandaged vampire burst, his ribs flying outwards in a deluge of blood and gore. Alucard reformed from the darkened mist that had conquered the landscape. "That was to easy."

Alucard advanced up the causeway, towards the front door of the mansion. With each step the moon receded behind the surrounding forest. He walked to the door, and pushed it open. The old wood creaked as the door swung to the side, and he continued inwards. Alucard noticed the old furniture was covered by white cloth, as if the house hadn't been lived in for years. He continued inwards, and noticed the sound of a fire coming from the upstairs. He headed upwards on the staircase that flanked the first room, and came upon a large library. There was shelf upon shelf of books that looked as if they hadn't seen a reader in decades. There was a fire blazing, casting odd shadows about the room. He boldly walked forwards, making his way across the room towards the fireplace. A voice sounded out from one of the chairs facing the fireplace. "I see you made it past my servant" The voice was harsh, and seemed to be whisked away by some breeze that subconsciously blew through the room. "He was a fool to cross swords with Alucard, the Hellsing family pet." Sarcasm dripped from her voice like poison from a dagger. "Let me tell you my story before you kill me, vampire. I beseech you, just a few more moments to tell my tale before my lifeblood is drained from me." "Alright," he responded. "But just because you asked so nicely."

"My tale begins at my eighth birthday. My brother was 17, not quite an adult, but seemingly in control of himself. He was tall and lank for his age, which gave him a tendency towards awkwardness. I had never seen him with a girl before, so it shocked me when he brought a date to my party. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and have not seen someone as beautiful since. It shocked my parents as well, and they immediately fell in love with her, as he had. It is my belief that she had only agreed to be with him because of our money, but I had to keep my mouth shut just to avoid her wrath. She had a temper like hell itself, and a fury no tempest could match, but he loved her, as did everyone around her. They were wed a year later, on my birthday. My parents said I should be happy he married her, but I couldn't help but feel betrayed by my family. Apparently that night, she had gone to their marriage bed with ought a thought of consummating the vows they had taken. She was a vampire, but she had kept it hidden for so long, no one expected it. She bit my brother, and commanded him to kill our parents. He had no choice but to murder them. To slaughter them. The Hellsing agency did what they do best. They followed his scent and murdered him as he fled our former home. His mistress escaped, and I vowed to kill her and take my revenge. I had no way to do this, you see, so I found the body parts of my murdered parents and brother, and crafted a new form for his soul. As I summoned his spirit, something went wrong, and I ended up with a cruel master in the place of my beloved brother. He commanded me to do awful things. Things so foul they aught not to be spoken of. Eventually I gained enough power to overthrow my dark master's rule, and took him as my servant. I sent him in search of the woman who had caused my misery. Months passed, and finally he had tracked her down, It appeared that she had repeated what happened with my brother with another unsuspecting victim, but was more cautious about getting her fill of blood. I commanded my servant to slaughter them all, and so he did, but you had to be the investigator of my vengeance. You had to murder my creation, and for that you will pay!" She sprung from the chair with a speed no one expected of someone her size and stabbed Alucard in the chest with a silver dagger that she had concealed in her dress. With a quick motion, Alucard caught her wrist and bent it slightly. The blade clattered to the floor as she fell into Alucard's arms. "So you see" she sobbed, "why I had him kill those people. They were under her control, and Hellsing was powerless to stop her. They thought it was my brother, all those years ago. Now there is only one way out." She backed away from Alucard, slowly and surely. She reached towards the table and picked up a revolver she had laying on the table. "Goodbye Alucard. I'll see you in hell." She raised the pistol to her head, but before she could get off a shot, Alucard was next to her. He grabbed her arm and twisted it. The gun clattered to the floor. "Why? Where would killing yourself get you?" Alucard asked her. "That is the coward's way out.

Works sited:

.com/hellsing_

Hellsing by Kohta Hirano 

Hellsing Ultimate


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